The Hollywood Foreign Press Association threw no roadblocks in the way of presumed Oscar frontrunner “Boyhood” Sunday night. This remarkable film took the Golden Globes’ top prize — best picture, drama — as well as best director honors for Richard Linklater and a supporting actress award for Patricia Arquette. The Globe winner in this category has won the Best Picture Oscar for the past three years.

But there was a huge surprise for best picture on the comedy or musical side — the heavily favored “Birdman” lost, even though it took the best actor (Michael Keaton) and screenplay prizes. The upset was pulled off by “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which appears to be gaining Oscar momentum after leading nominations for the British academy awards three days ago. Not likely enough momentum to actually win Best Picture, but this twee comedy could turn out to be an Oscar spoiler for “Birdman.”

Heavily promoted Oscar contenders like “Foxcatcher” and “Into the Woods” went home empty-handed, while “Selma” and “The Imitation Game” had to settle for consolation prizes in the music categories.

Favored Eddie Redmayne of “The Theory of Everything” beat out fellow Brit Benedict Cumberbatch for “Imitation,” but his acceptance speech — a laundry list of thank-yous — wasn’t moving, like the one given by his likely chief rival at the Oscars, Keaton. And that could well be remembered when Oscar voters fill out their ballots.

The heavily favored Julianne Moore (“Still Alice”) beat back an aggressive last-minute campaign by Jennifer Aniston (“Cake”) to win best actress in a drama. If she and Redmayne repeat with wins in the top acting categories on Oscar night, it will make an odd kind of history — they played an incestuous mother and son in the little-seen “Savage Grace” (2007).

Oscar polls closed last Thursday, so the Golden Globe wins won’t have an impact on the Oscar nominations, announced next Thursday morning. But they likely will influence voting for the winners.